For the packaging of packs of several beverage containers and/or bottles, the beverage containers and/or bottles may be grouped on horizontal conveying means and combined to form groups of a defined number of containers. This defined number of grouped containers is usually provided with a film wrapping for easier handling, so that the packs may be easily transported, stacked and, if necessary, also presented in a sales room in this pack form.
For many types of packs, particularly for major packs, it is useful to apply paperboard packaging alternatively or in addition to the film packaging that encloses the packs nearly completely, the paperboard packaging stabilizing at least the bottom area and parts of an edge area. This paperboard packaging is applied by positioning the pack on a flat sheet of paperboard whose edges extend beyond the footprint of the pack on all sides. The edges may then be folded upward at a right angle and glued together at the overlapping lateral edges and/or at the interior surfaces. Adhesive bonding always requires overlapping side walls and front/back walls, because the overlapping portions form the glue flaps. The side walls may have a typical height that may correspond to about a third of the height to about half the height of the beverage containers and/or bottles. However, other dimensions may be suitable for the side walls, depending on the packaged goods.
The creasing and folding of the circumferential paperboard edge of the stabilizing pack bottom is usually performed with the help of guide elements arranged to both sides of the transport conveyor belt. These guide elements initially serve for bending the lateral edges of the paperboard packaging upward at a certain place and then pushing them against the sides of the pack after previous application of a suitable adhesive, such as hot glue or the like, to paperboard glue flaps provided for that purpose. While the pack is advanced, the guide elements serve for pressing the paperboard edge to the paperboard glue flaps previously provided with adhesive. The pack and/or the containers in the paperboard enclosure may serve as mating face withstanding the pressure, so that the paperboard enclosure is stabilized while the adhesive is hardening.
The above guide elements are usually made of plastic. They must be spaced such that the packs may easily pass, but at the same time such that the upward-folded edges of the paperboard packaging are pressed against the lateral edges of the packs, because otherwise it is not possible to reliably ensure that the adhesive bond is sufficiently stable. Therefore the packs may only have minimal tolerances with respect to their dimensions, because otherwise reliable functioning of the guide elements cannot be guaranteed.